Many people travel and when they do, from time to time they have the need to access a computer, typically their home computer. If the need is anticipated, appropriate files from the home computer can be imported into a portable computer such as a laptop computer or a palmtop computer running the Microsoft Windows CE.RTM. operating system, and the user can then operate the portable computer. However, it will readily be appreciated that the need might not be anticipated, or that the user might not travel with a portable computer, and that under such circumstances the user will not have the necessary files and applications immediately available. Even when the user has a portable computer and has tried to anticipate what work might be undertaken on it, the user might nonetheless discover that additional files or applications from the home computer are needed.
Systems have been provided for communicating with remote computers via the Internet, but existing systems only partially address the above-noted problem. For example, the remote access server (RAS) feature provided by Microsoft's Windows NT 4.0 operating system allows a user to transfer files from a remote computer, but it provides neither application support nor faithful reproduction of the home computer's desktop and other settings. Indeed, Microsoft Windows RAS simply facilitates the transfer of files between computers. Accordingly, any applications sought to be executed must be executed by the remote computer. Consequently, the remote computer cannot be any computing device such as, e.g., a so-called "thin client" that might have only a Web browser program and a generic computing protocol application available to it, but rather the remote computer must be a computer sufficiently powerful to execute the home computer's applications.
The system marketed under the trademark "PCAnywhere" allows a user at a remote computer to access and control a home computer via the Internet, but this system, like other existing computer communication systems, requires that the home computer be on, operating, and accessible from the Internet. Thus, if the home computer has been turned off, or if the PCAnywhere application has not been invoked on the home computer, or if the home computer Internet connection has been lost or terminated, access to the home computer is not possible.
We have considered the above-noted problems and have understood that it is desirable and possible to enable a person to virtually operate their home computer using any available computing device, including a thin client computer and public kiosks such as are found at airports, regardless of whether the home computer itself is available. More specifically, the present invention understands that the remote computer file backup systems disclosed in the present assignee's issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,254 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 09/041,149 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,874 and 09/100,914 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,665, all of which are incorporated herein by reference, can be further used in cooperation with the novel programming disclosed herein to address the above-noted problems.